Rango: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

So my Lovely just took me this evening to see the movie Rango. The new animated film, made by Industrial Light and Magic (George Lucas' and Steven Spielberg's effects people) and directed by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean guy), had been on my "I really want to see that movie" list since I first saw previews towards the end of last year. I like it when movie makers try for something original and visually different, and Rango looked like one seriously original animated movie.

And now, having seen it: yep, it is one seriously original, unique movie (the bare bones of the plot aren't really original; it's a conglomeration of scores of western tropes, but the presentation sure is original). In fact, it may be the strangest movie I have ever seen in my life. I kind of have mixed feelings about it. Let me break it down for you according to a good old western cliche:

The Good

The visuals are good. No, not just good. FLIPPIN' OUTSTANDINGAMAZINGGEORGEOUSBEAUTIFUL! Really, I think this is the most visually stunning animated film I have ever seen, and that includes all the Pixar and Miyazaki canon. The desert scenery, the superb character animations and detail applied to every single animal character that's on screen. It's almost worth the price of admission alone just to admire the artistry of the animators here. As my Lovely said to me, they did an amazing job of having each character be recognizable as the animal it was while still also maintaining very cleverly done human qualities and expressiveness. Rango, with his crooked neck and shifty eyes, the crow indian, the spider under-taker, the villainous Rattlesnake Jake, etc. Even the dirt looks amazing.

Hans Zimmer also does a really awesome western score here. Very near the beginning of the movie I was already thinking to myself, "I want this soundtrack." And there's a fantastic medley of country-meets-ride-of-the-valkyries-meets-waltz in one scene.

Johnny Depp is wonderful as the title character. We've already seen from Pirates of the Caribbean that's he's awesome at mumbling hilarious nonsense and he does much the same here (though now in a cowboy accent instead of a pirate one). The rest of cast does a great job.

The imagination and strangeness here do make the movie very memorable, and it has plenty of hilarious gags (I loved the bits with the mariachi owls in the trailer and they did not disappoint in the film).

The Bad

While it's funny and visually stunning, I have to agree with a few reviews that I've read of it (though most critics very much like the film) that the movie does seem to lack a certain warmth or heart. While there were several characters that entertained me, I still wasn't as emotionally invested in the characters as I've been in other films (like anything Pixar has done or How to Train Your Dragon).

There are some plot holes in this movie. I allow for a larger suspension of disbelief with animated films, but sometimes characters' actions in this movie really made no sense.

Also, sometimes weirdness is just weird. This movie was downright trippy at points. Which isn't always bad, but I think it does kind of make it more difficult to get that emotional connection with the story and characters as I was talking about earlier. I have a feeling that this movie might become a favorite of people who are stoned or high.

The Ugly

The frequent potty humor and/or adult innuendo. Really? I know a lot of this stuff goes over children's heads, and I'm not saying that Americans can't make more adult-minded animated films like the Japanese (and Pixar) often do, but you know this movie is being marketed to children. As one innuendo or crude joke piled onto another, I kept feeling myself become sadder and sadder. Regardless of whether kids are going to understand it or not, it's inappropriate.
Even without the child-angle, it's just boring and off-putting to me. Crude humor is NOT hard. Continually usually scatological terms does not show any real wit. I think a lot of film makers feel that, along with being "edgy" and "rebellious," they're being hilarious by putting crude humor in a kid's film-just the fact to them that crude humor is being put in a format usually meant for children amuses them greatly. But it's not really edgy or particularly innovative anymore. It's been done, and it's tired and lazy writing.
It reminds me of a professor I had who seemed to swear more and more towards the end of the semester. He really didn't swear much, but he started to interject a naughty word occasionally towards the end of the semester. And everyone would laugh (to my shame I may have even, a couple of times). But then I think, "How is this funny? All he's doing is saying a crude word. Ok, so the surprise of the first time or two might make you laugh, but really? We're going to award somebody with laughter just because they can use their vocal cords and articulating muscles to say a vulgar word."
I want to take these filmmakers and point them towards Pixar: "See, this is how you do it. This is how you make movies that appeal to all ages and are consistently laugh-out-loud hilarious while almost never going for the cheap joke." Perhaps, that's why other filmmakers resort to crude humor; they just don't have the talent and genuine wit that the Pixar filmmakers/writers do.

And in the end, this is what really dragged down my enjoyment and the lasting entertainment value of the movie for me. I still admire the artistry, visual wit, the performances, music, and, at times, bits of dialog that managed to be hilarious without being crude. I'll retain many fond memories of certain moments of the film. But I doubt I'll ever buy the movie. I don't think it's appropriate for children, and I think in any rewatches I would just end up continually being annoyed by the very unnecessary "Haha! Can you believe we just said that in a kid's movie! Hey, let's throw in a poop gag here!" jokes that keep popping up.

So, there you have it, I guess. When's Cars 2 coming out?